Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 667 Today is April st
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Casper Hauser - or Ahmad ibn Rusta, as the bard called himself in Fenris, was frozen in place.

He tried hard to close his eyes, then opened them carefully, hoping that the illusion before his eyes would dissipate like every dream he woke up from.

But it didn't.

Horus Lupercal, the Wolf-Shepherd, Primarch of the Sixteenth Legion, the Emperor's beloved son, and the Legion's Lord Commander, still stood there, looking down at him with a kind smile that Casper felt he would never see on Horus' face in his lifetime.

Even though Gasper Hauser had never seen Horus in person, he knew this face from the writings of countless recorders, the images of countless cameras, and the propaganda films and prints of the Empire.

There was no doubt about it, this was Horus Lupercal.

The Primarchs were all otherworldly giants, and Horus, clad in heavy armor, was no exception.

The volume of the Wolf God and his power armor almost filled up half of Casper's bedroom in Terra's orbit. The bard was very puzzled as to why he had not noticed that such a heavyweight existence was appearing beside him just now?
But a thought naturally came to his mind: Now doesn't seem to be the time to think about this... His gaze was forced back to Horus in front of him as his mind refocused.

The giant who was still smiling at him had a handsome face and extraordinary bravery. He wore pearl white Moon Wolf armor with gold borders. The symbol of his legion, the Eye of Horus, was embedded on his chest, and the eight-pointed star logo surrounded his eyes.

But why him? Why was Horus Lupercal here?

Just as he thought, Casper naturally asked the question.

Then he saw the giant standing opposite him looking at him with his four neat and tidy teeth showing. That smile had a kind of charity and pity that a higher caste would show to a lower caste, and it was also like a wise elder looking at a naughty and unruly child.

"Because the turning point of the chess game has been made, it is about to come to an end," said the Wolf God, "I want to see you again before the final move is made. Old friend."

"I... I don't understand what you mean. My Lord, I have never seen you before. If I had such an honorable opportunity and encounter, I would not be able to fail to remember this incident."

"Ah," Horus' voice was gentle, and he nodded indulgently. "After all, you are still only a pawn in a crucial chess position - of course, a pawn can do a lot if it is placed correctly - but have we really never seen it? I don't think so."

Another thought came to Casper's mind: Maybe I should ask him why the game ended at this moment? What happened?

Before the bard could react, the question was passed on.

"Indeed," Horus said with a smile, "You recognize this one?"

He pulled out a weapon from the belt of his armor. The craftsmanship of making it was so primitive and rough, as if it was the work of ancestors tens of thousands of years ago. At first glance, it did not match his armor which embodied the most advanced technology of Terra and Mars. But upon closer inspection, its craftsmanship was so exquisite and natural that it was perfect to hang it around the waist of a warmaster.

The color of the blade of this weapon is so dark that it is difficult to describe with any color. Its material is like metal and stone. Its edge appears bumpy, but it is sharp enough to pierce through any armor and defense.

For some reason, a thought lingered in Casper's mind: he had seen this weapon before. And it was not made by humans. This weapon that carried the fate of killing must have had an equally destined name when it was discovered.

“It’s the answer to the problem.”

"What is it called?"

"Enemy Blade," Horus answered, caressing the jagged edge of the stone sword as gently as if it were the skin of a lover. "It is this blade that will be stabbed in a year, completing a crucial turning point in the chess game. It will pierce me, wound me, cause me to fall, and bring me back to life."

So, who was killed by it, and who was reborn?

But Casper thought so in his heart, but did not ask this question. Instead, he asked another question that he felt was more natural, "One year later? Since you knew that this would happen one year later, why didn't you try to prevent it from happening?"

"Because this weapon was meant to do what it was forged to do, Casper."

The wolf god was surprisingly patient about talking to him. "Look, when it cuts off my connection with my mortal body, I will not fall into the darkness after death. On the contrary, I will be embraced by the gods. I will be reborn and see and understand this universe with a whole new perspective and power. I will escape the order that imprisons all living things and become the eternal chaos. I will be in the present, the past, and the future, Casper, just as we are standing in your past now. In the future, I will naturally know about the past and the future at the same time, just like today -"

Suddenly, the elegance of his eloquent speech and the warmth full of instruction and patience were torn off the handsome face of the Wolf God like a mask. The face suddenly became full of excitement, malice, hatred, madness and disgust for everything. He became twisted and ugly, and his eyes almost turned into two red burning carbon balls. The horrible sight made the bard back away until his back was pressed against the radiation-proof glass and he could not retreat any further.

"What's going on?!" Horus shouted, while the color of his pearly white armor was rapidly changing to a pine green, and it seemed to be turning darker. "This shouldn't be! This shouldn't be! We are standing in your yesterday, and today should be one of the days when things start to become irreversible! Shouldn't today be the day when Prospero was burned by wolves?! Why can't I feel the heat of destruction around you, the excitement of the climax of the betrayal drama, and the cries of thousands of souls?! Gasper Hauser! Tell me!"

"I...I don't know..."

"Tell me! What day is today?!"

"Today... Today is..."

【Tell him that today is April 1st.】

The bard swallowed, "Today... Today is April 1st..."

"lie!"

The Horus in front of him let out an animal scream like the most deranged human, then he turned around and cursed this false day, obviously not wanting to stay here.

"Catch him! Don't let him run away!" A very real voice suddenly sounded in Casper's ears.

But isn't there a thick radiation-proof glass behind him? Beyond the glass is the vacuum outside the hyper-orbital platform above Terra...

Before the bard could think about it, several figures jumped out from the glass behind him and pounced on the wolf shepherd god who was trying to escape.

His eyes could barely make out the red gem-like armor and unique staff of the leading warrior - was that a Thousand Son?
And there was another being moving forward at the same pace as this Thousand Son with a black bird head on his shoulder armor.

At first glance he thought it was a dark-colored giant wolf, but at second glance he realized it was the wolf fur that the Space Wolves habitually wore on their backs - it was Othril, the Rune Priest wearing a leather mask on his face, and countless totemic pendants, beads, and animal teeth and claws wrapped around his neck, waist and wrists.

The two of them, with an aura of extreme dislike for each other but with the same goal and strange complementarity, rushed towards Horus who was about to escape, not even afraid that they were about to deal with a Primarch - the Emperor's most beloved son and the Warmaster of all Astartes - were they crazy? !

"Obviously they are not crazy, Casper, you should not approach their battlefield now. We still need your dreams to stabilize this time bubble. If we let him escape this time, we don't know when he will escape next time. Calm your mind, and I will help you."

Another voice sounded in his ears, this time it was a gentle voice, a little unfamiliar, but Casper remembered who it was, and he and the others were preparing beside Casper as he lay down on the blue moss slab at the bottom of the canyon, and he was impressed by the skill of the Sky Owl Temple lecturer in being able to communicate in his mind at a distance without anyone noticing.

"Captain Baleko Ushizar?"

"It's me. Come with me and stabilize together." The Sky Owl Telepath said, "I will let half of myself stay outside and half talk to you, so that the people outside can know what's going on. We can also better know when to wake you up in time."

"Oh my god. I don't know how much longer I can stay awake. This is crazy. I mean, standing behind me is Horus... My Lord, and they... they're going to fight him... Astartes attacking a Primarch... I..."

"You'll know the reason when they catch him. It won't take too long. Now calm your mind first, otherwise all of your lives will be in danger." Ushizar promised, then Tianxiao retracted his gaze and turned his eyes back to reality.

Night had fallen on Satya, but eleven fires were burning around them, driving out the night's chill and the ghosts of the shadows. Owen Evilwinter was walking between the fires, keeping them alight and throwing more herbs and other powders into the flames. Othrel and Ahriman lay on Casper's left and right, with the runes of Prospero and Fenris painted on their heads to connect to dreams.

Othrel curled up there like a vigilant sleeping wolf, his fur-covered armor hung with black raven feathers, human finger bones, and blood-like gems with silver threads, and his fingers were tightly grasping his weapon; while Azek Ahriman lay on his back neatly, with his hands crossed on his chest, one hand holding his staff and the other hand holding his scimitar. The only thing they had in common was that their faces were distorted and their foreheads were covered with sweat, as if they were experiencing a severe and fierce battle.

"Is he stable?" Perturabo BC typed solemnly.

"Yes, Lord Russ. It is stable for now, and a part of me is in there helping him maintain his state of mind."

"very good."

"So they are all in Casper's dream now?" The question was asked by the Lord of Steel. Obviously, this lord was not very proficient in psychic arts, otherwise he would not have asked such a question with the ability he displayed - so the question is, what exactly is that ability?

The Sky Owl Telepath glanced meaningfully at the location where the Lord of Steel was. In his psychic vision, which was extremely sensitive to spiritual energy, there was a strange place obscured by many misplaced small cubes. It was so conspicuous that it was out of tune with the entire universe. The spiritual energy of the Lord of the Wolf Pack was now in the shape of a sheepdog with its tail curled up. Of course, it was very dazzling, like a big star surrounded by a nebula, and was not inferior to the Red King at all.

Magnus answered Ramizarn's question, "No, relative to our present, the four of them are all in the depths of the Vast Ocean, at a certain point in the past. In fact, if we introduce their location into this place right now, we will see that two different time and space are connected together."

"Then why do we have to keep Casper in a stable dreaming state instead of us directly... Wait! I get it! Could it be that this is actually... the Geller force field! It's the Geller force field!"

"Yes." The Fifteenth Primarch nodded. "This is the principle of the Geller field that our ships used when they crossed the Vast Ocean. Now they are using the Geller field formed by Gasper Hauser's dream to protect themselves from the Vast Ocean, so that they can go back in time and catch that suspicious guy."

"So this person may not be from that time period. From what he just said, it sounds like he can appear at all times. But even the current Horus can't do that, right?"

"I can't do that." Magnus said confidently, "Although Horus is a great warrior and commander, he does not have the ability to travel through time and space in terms of psychic skills. So I said he must not be Horus, but a pretender - just like the content of the hallucination prophecy I saw when I fainted in the Nikea Theater. That guy also used Horus's face to say that I couldn't stop his transformation. Ha, I told him at the time, let's wait and see. Those void predators are accustomed to pretending like this and making false threats. Once travelers are frightened by them, they will lose their arrogance and become easy prey."

"You sound so experienced, as if you often travel alone to the depths of the Vast Ocean." The Lord of Steel said this out of the blue.

"...No, it was only during those necessary times of seeking knowledge that I..."

Casper's body suddenly bounced up, like a live fish on a roasted stone slab. Ushizar immediately rushed over to comfort him, chanting a spell, while large beads of sweat flowed down the foreheads of Othrel and Ahriman like streams. Various battle scars began to appear on the bodies of the two Astartes psykers, traces of lightning, and burnt black from fire. The smell of fresh blood stimulated Ornn Evilwinter, and the Rune Priest roared and ran quickly between the fires, throwing in more herbs and curse bone powder.

The flames began to rise higher and higher, and the smell of blood became stronger. Suddenly, Othrel roared in his sleep, and then a stream of blood flew high from his left arm. They watched his left arm completely severed from his body. Just as Ramizane asked Magnus to heal the rune priest, Ahriman cried out in pain. A long gash was cut between his chest and abdomen by an invisible weapon, almost tearing him open, but he shouted, "I caught him! I caught him! Othrel!"

The rune priest let out a wolf-like howl, and then they saw the fingers of his right hand pull the trigger twice in succession towards a target. The plasma pistol on his waist emitted a charging light.

Then, as their eyes opened, Ahriman's clenched fingers grasped the edge of a breastplate into the real space, but he had lost too much blood and was very weak, and the edge was about to slip back.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!!!!"

The low bark rolled in the echo of the canyon and shocked the hearts of everyone who heard it.

This is the fear of predators from the most distant past.

Ramizane lunged forward and grabbed the breastplate, and then the LOGOS server emitted a powerful roar, and something heavy fell to the ground with a thud, smashing moss and gravel everywhere.

The man with the face of Horus was also dragged into this reality, covered in wounds.

(End of this chapter)